Neverending Journey

It's been a month + since I've posted. The past weeks have been filled with the daily survival chores and an attempt to discard excess, organize the remaining and establish some routines and plans. The kids also completed their Public speaking classes, which entailed writing speeches, memorizing speeches and presenting speeches. I'm glad that's over! We also got to spend a day visiting with a couple of my aunts and cousins in a neighboring state. We had a great time catching up and the kids had fun making friends with their 3rd cousins. Too bad we all live so far from each other.

Although we've continued on with some schoolwork we still have yet to get on a good schedule where we get most of what I have planned for the day accomplished, but I have managed to plan and implement a couple of things that have brought some order and sanity to our household. Keeping the kids motivated to keep their rooms presentable had become quite the challenge and with three kids in each room it is easy to imagine how quickly their rooms can become overwhelmingly messy. I gathered all the kids together and explained the new system, which this post inspired, and then I spent the day helping them clean out their rooms, discard all the excess and non-essentials and change their sheets and make their beds neatly. We are now in our third week and this system is still working and their rooms are remaining neat and orderly! The other thing I've done is implement meal planning. I've tried this over and over only to become overwhelmed by the decisions one must make to plan out 3 meals for seven days, but after reading meal plans of other large families on different blogs I felt ready to overcome this obstacle. We are on week 2 and WOW!!! what a difference it has made. I always dreaded the first words of the morning, "Mommy what's for breakfast?" I would cringe before my eyes ever opened. Also their were constant protests to what I was planning on preparing, but now that the menu is plainly posted on the fridge, there seems to be less inclination to argue with the plan. Breakfast and lunch repeats weekly, but dinner I still add in some variety. Tomorrow I will share our menu for this week, but now I'm going to rest while my toddler is napping.